Why the MBA Mentality Sucks

In May of 2010, I earned my MBA from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The general opinion of risk-averse people was that this was an excellent career move. For the entrepreneurial crowd in my life, this was perceived as being somewhere between a hair shirt and a career-limiting move. Perhaps this is based on Garage Technology Ventures founder Guy Kawasaki’s startup valuation metric: Startup Value = + $1M (each full time programmer) - $250k (each full time MBA) This is further reinforced by semi-scientific evidence from the TED video above (on a side note, I love TED and can get lost there for hours exploring videos). Spend a little time watching the video. To summarize, the findings were that the MBAs produced worse results than kindergarteners given the task of building a tower from basic materials because the MBAs wasted time talking instead of doing anything. From personal experience, there is a dichotomy between fact-based classes like accounting and softer classes like strategy and marketing. During the softer classes, MBA students sit in the comfort and safety of their classroom, interjecting and casually mentioning how executives of Enron, BestBuy and WalMart ‘should’ have approached a situation more effectively. This behavior was celebrated and provided some perspective, but was essentially ‘Monday morning quarterbacking’ and outside the pressure of real life. These exercises seem to foster the belief that MBAs add value by pontificating. Few of the MBAs I knew found honor or had the desire to get their hands dirty or focus on execution. Success lies solely in the execution. McDonald’s makes its money by serving billions of hamburgers, not by talking about serving billions. Based on these factors, my thesis is that MBAs are prone to pontificate and reduce risk. We are trained to create beautifully formatted spreadsheets and pass them along to superiors who will make a decision for us. This is excellent when guiding a firm that is stable, but in excess, stifles a growing firm. In a growing firm, the execution and constant shipping (to borrow from Seth Godin) is what will make a difference. Don’t hate the MBA; hate anyone’s inability to focus on execution and want for reward without adding value.